Today, April 13, is what free-market think tank the Centre for Independent Studies dubs Tax Freedom Day for 2017 — the day on which Australians are no longer working for the government and begin working for themselves.

“It has taken 102 days for Australians to pay off this year’s annual tax burden,” CIS economist Michael Potter said.

“The average Australian has sacrificed $19,200 to pay for government services at all levels — federal, state and local. Despite taking 28 per cent of the wealth created by each working Australian, this level of taxation is not enough to cover rising government expenditure.

“Last year, the federal and state governments combined ran deficits of roughly $43 billion and are effectively borrowing to finance day-to-day operations. With these deficits we can look forward to working even longer to pay off taxes down the track.”

Mr Potter said since 2011, Tax Freedom Day had pushed further back on the calendar.

“This year, Tax Freedom Day falls one day later than it did last year,” he said. “Present forecasts indicate little relief for taxpayers in the coming years, with Tax Freedom Day set to be later every year.

“Governments urgently need to arrest the growth of spending to alleviate the pressure taxation places on Australians.”

According to a research report by Mr Potter, Australian taxpayers will be hit with a tax increase in the next five years of 12.7 per cent per person in real terms. The extra tax burden — above the 40-year average — is expected to be $29.6 billion, or $1228 per person.

Much of that forecast increase is due to bracket creep, where taxpayers are pushed into higher tax brackets through inflation.

In last year’s federal budget, the government made what it called a “modest down payment” to combat bracket creep by increasing the 32.5 per cent marginal tax threshold from $80,000 to $87,000, affecting some 500,000 people.

Economists have described the move as “inadequate”, arguing the tax thresholds should be indexed to solve the problem once and for all.

In February, Revenue and Financial Services Minister Kelly O’Dwyer strongly hinted next month’s budget would include a more permanent solution to bracket creep.

“The government is very focused on this issue of how we can reduce the burden and reward people for their effort,” Ms O’Dwyer said.

“We’ve made a modest down payment on that with changes to the tax thresholds, but clearly this is an area that internationally there is movement on and we need to be focused on this issue.”